by David Glass (D Glass Associates)  One of the morning sessions at the Tenth Annual BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology put four of the companies in the forefront of commercial development of cellulosic ethanol …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The EPREINC scenario—One chart was prepared by the Energy Policy Research Foundation for its Congressional testimony on the Renewable Fuel Standard yesterday.
…
EPRINC’s scenario foresees a big shortfall between the production …

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  NASCAR’s sportscar racing division, GrandAm, and Green Racing aren’t words that you see together.  For one thing, GrandAm competitors race on all-petroleum race fuel. Yet, GrandAm and the American Le …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Biofuel Weiss Inc. is developing a 7 MMgy continuous flow multifeedstock biodiesel production facility in Atlantic Canada, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to Ian Weiss, CEO of Weiss Biofuel, the …

by Dan Seif (Mother Earth News/Rocky Mountain Institute)  Advanced, non-food biofuels are gaining momentum in 2013 as several new plants have gathered the capital and momentum for large-scale production.
…
Despite sparse media coverage, significant volumes of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  DoD goes forward, after internal wrangle, with advanced biofuels program via $16M phase 1 investment.
With industry cost share, project totals $33M: aims for sub-$4, drop-in military biofuels.
In Washington, the DoD …

by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine)  During a call to discuss its first quarter financial results, Syntroleum Corp. announced that Dynamic Fuels LLC’s renewable diesel plant in Geismar, La., is expected to resume operations in July. …

by Kathy Coatney (Beef Magazine/BeefProducer.com)  Small, automated units can make biodiesel from animal fat, waste oil and oilseed crops.
An Arkansas professor has been experimenting with a farm-sized biodiesel plant that can use animal fat, waste …

(Fresh Plaza)  Bananas in poor condition could become a type of biofuel thanks to a study by the Canary Islands Technological Institute (ITC) with the support of the DISA Foundation.
Douglas Escalante (an intern of the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Darling of the mid-2000s, still beloved by its many fans — biodiesel is increasingly a key to delivering advanced biofuels volumes now — and even more so between now and …

by Pavel Molchanov (Raymond James and Associates/Biofuels Digest)  …There is no question that there have been growing pains along the way, more than we would have hoped, but the industry continues along its trajectory towards scale. We …

(Bangkok Post)  Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF), the country’s biggest food maker and exporter, has stepped up efforts to use more renewable energy from waste discharged from chicken, pig and shrimp operations.
Alternative fuel projects consisting …

(Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute/PR NewsWire)  The $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a business plan competition supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) encouraging students from universities in the southeastern United …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The International Energy Agency, through its Task 39 group, has published its 207-page report on the “Status of Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Facilities in 2012″.
The report, in its pages, contains detailed …

by Jim Lane (BioInvest Digest)  …It’s an idea whose time has come, for sure. The opportunity for small-scale production of alcohol fuels in the 20,000 to 500,000 gallon range — using wastes routinely produced (and …

(The Fish Site)  Two plants have opened in Jaguaribara and Morada Nova to reduce tilapia waste by converting it into biodiesel.
…Mr Joacir Moreira said that the plants have been set up in order to prevent …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A numbers of readers responding to “Biofuels from a raging fireball” (Friday’s Top Story, on research work with the raging fireball, Pyrococchus furiosus, to make biofuels and renewable chemicals from …

by Anna Simet (Biomass Magazine)  There is enough land available to produce more food, more feed and more biofuels, which are not the cause of global malnutrition problems, according to the World Bioenergy Association.
WBA makes …

On July 31–August 1, 2013, US Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and Advanced Biofuels USA will co-host the sixth annual biomass conference, Biomass 2013: How the Advanced Bioindustry is Reshaping American Energy, at the …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  A sit-down with Dave Elsenbast, vice president of supply chain management for Renewable Energy Group Inc.  For more than 25 years, Dave Elsenbast has been a leader in agricultural business …

(UFOP/Biodiesel Magazine) The German Research Center for Biomass (DBFZ) was commissioned by the German oilseed promotional council (UFOP) to explain the proposals by the European Commission regarding the amendment of the Renewable Energies Directive and …

(Institute for European Environmental Policy)  This report focuses on the potential sustainability of an advanced biofuel industry relying on mainly wastes and residues as the feedstock base. Presented as a series of ‘factsheets’ we consider …

(FIS)  In late March, the opening of two biofuel tilapia- based plants in the towns Jaguaribara and Morada Nova, in Vale do Jaguaribe, was announced by Joacir Moreira, one of the coordinators of the project …

by Ron Yawn (Biodiesel Magazine/ALX Enterprises LLC)  …At a time when even bad feedstock is expensive, more plants are running animal fats and yellow grease. More plants are using acid esterification, many without adequate drying …

(Gulf Daily News)  A Scientific research study in Bahrain has concluded that it is possible to extract biofuel oil from the nuclei of date palms. Ten per cent is then turned into diesel after chemical …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Louisiana — hot as cayenne pepper in biofuels capacity development, but some cautionary tales there in the sauce.
When it comes to the first generation of ethanol and biodiesel-based biofuels, Louisiana …

by Kristi Pihl (Tri-City Herald)  A pilot project to produce biofuel using agricultural and organic municipal waste has reached levels that makes the process commercially viable, researchers say.
The project, paid for by the Department of Energy, …

by Dennis Domrzalski (Albuquerque Business First)  One of America’s largest producers of biodiesel said it might walk away from its unfinished biodiesel plant in Clovis if the state Legislature rolls back a mandate that all diesel …

(INCBIO)  Incbio, a leading Portuguese engineering company, who specializes in state of the art fully automated industrial ultrasonic Biodiesel plants, has signed a contract with Biofuel Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Green Energy Group Limited, …

(Environmental Protection Agency)   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking final action to identify additional fuel pathways that the Agency has determined meet the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirements for biomass-based diesel, …

(RSB Services Foundation)  The RSB Services Foundation, the implementing entity of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) which has developed a global sustainability standard and certification system for biofuel production, is pleased to announce that …

(ElectraWinds)   Energo Zelena, Electrawinds’ rendering project in Serbia, is fully operational after a start-up period of a few weeks. This animal-waste product processing project is a new step in Electrawinds’ vertical integration and provides the …

(The Business Journal)  A planned biodiesel production facility will begin operating next year thanks to a $6-million grant approved this week by the California Energy Commission.
The facility is one of six projects throughout the state …

by Scott Irwin and Darrel Good (FarmDocDaily/University of Illinois)  …Our focus is on the increasing difficulty of meeting the RFS for both renewable biofuel (domestically produced ethanol) and advanced biofuels in the next 12 to …

by Jason Krupp (EIN News)  Petrol retailer Z Energy says world oil prices could plunge by almost half in the next five years, as United States oil and gas production booms because of “fracking”.
Fracking is …

(Radio New Zealand News)  Service station chain Z Energy is expecting a new push to replace some of its fossil fuels with renewables will be a struggle.
The company wants to revive a biofuel project in …

(The Fish Site)  Hiep Thanh Seafood Processing Corporation (HTFood) has successfully produced bio-diesel from catfish fat.
Waste catfish material such as intestine, bone and fat are all used in the process of converting catfish waste material …

by Tom Doran  (AgNews) …Under the current Renewable Fuels Standards, continued growth in corn-based ethanol use is uncertain do to several factors, including the 10 percent blend wall, slow implementation of higher blend, declining total …

by Ben Messenger  (Waste Management World)   Advanced biofuels produced from waste feedstocks are a key component of EU climate and energy ambitions, and offer a huge opportunity to drive economic growth in Europe, according to the European Biofuels …

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  “Why,” I asked an expert audience at the National Biodiesel Conference in Las Vegas this week, “if you have to take the oil out of soybeans to make your …

(DC Biofuels LLC/Biodiesel Magazine)  Two East Coast biodiesel development companies this week announced a strategic partnership agreement to provide the Washington, D.C., metro area with clean-burning biodiesel fuel made from locally collected waste vegetable oil …

by Holly Jessen  (Biodiesel Magazine)  A two-year research project aims to crack the lignin question by engineering a microbe to break down the byproduct into a lipid, or fat, and then into biodiesel. The research …

by Joann Muller (Forbes)  When the grueling 2013 Rolex 24 endurance race kicks off at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 26, the field will include three Mazda6 race cars powered by an unusual type of renewable fuel.
The ultra-clean, synthetic …

(The Portugal News Online)  Researchers from the University of the Algarve have presented a pioneering research project in which bio ethanol was produced from carobs.
Researcher Maria Emília Costa from the Centre of Marine and Environmental …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited a state-of-the-art bioindustrial facility at Renmatix today, where he announced $25 million to fund research and development of next-generation renewable energy and high-value biobased products from …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Following an October partnership between Petrobras Biofuel and the Brazilian Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture to intensify research into producing biodiesel from waste fish oil, Petrobras Biofuel recently participated in the release …

(The Hindu)  Y.B. Ramakrishna, Executive Chairman, Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board, said on Saturday that the board was planning to set up pilot plants for production of bio-ethanol from cashew apple and coffee pulp in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A long war of opinion has been waged for years between advanced biofuels’ detractors and supporters.  Mirage or reality? Completion of 6 key projects 2012 decided much of the debate. …

(FARS News Agency)  Head of Iran’s Fuel Conservation Company (IFCO) Abbas Kazzemi announced that his company has set up a specialized workgroup in cooperation with Ministry of Agricultural Jihad to produce biodiesel.
…”With regard to increasing …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  The Advanced Ethanol Council this morning released a report giving a snapshot of cellulosic ethanol producers in the U.S. and around the world. A look at facilities owned by companies such as …

(National Renewable Energy Laboratory)  Goal is to develop new catalysts to lower costs for producing biofuels
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will partner with Johnson Matthey, a global specialty chemicals company, …

by Amit Mitra (The Hindu Business Line)  Bio-fuel maker Biomax Fuels has set up a 50:50 joint venture with the Jeddah-based Middle East Environment Protection Co to set up the first bio-fuel plant in Saudi …

by Leon Kaye (TriplePundit)  …British Airways (BA) announced that it has found a site for a bio-refinery that will generate up to 50,000 tons of jet fuel annually. In a partnership with the American aviation …

(Equities.com)  Innovation, Services and Small Business Minister Louise Asher today officially launched, in conjunction with McDonald s Australia, Neutral Fuels new biodiesel processing facility in Dandenong.
Neutral Fuels has secured McDonald s as a major customer …

Many restaurants are becoming more energy conscious and are taking initiative, by the simple act of giving up their vegetable oil waste! Now you may ask, what good is left over vegetable oil? Well for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Brent Crude trades this past week at a transorbital $109 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate at a suborbital, if high, $85).  It puts the conventional wisdom that biofuels are too …

(La Prensa)  Given the questions that has challenged the production of biodiesel in Chiapas, and the use of this fuel in transportation Tapachulteco (Tapachula) and Conejobús (Tuxtla Gutierrez), the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines Guerrero, …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Promethean Biofuels, a community-scale biodiesel producer in Temecula, Calif., stood with giants such as Sony and BP Arco at the recent Environmental Excellence Awards Summit in San Diego. The awards …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  For B100 and biodiesel blends, two main fuel additive categories dominate the sector: stabilizers and cold flow improvers. Biodiesel can be produced from many fats, oils and greases, each possessing …

by Kelley Price (Evening Gazette)  A Scottish whisky distillery is about to become the first in the world to turn its waste into advanced biofuel – here on Teesside.
Tullibardine, an independent malt whisky producer, is …

(The Star)  A Japanese technology, which is still in its pilot stage, may be used on sago to produce ethanol.
Kansai Chemical Engineering Company Limited of Bio-Energy Corporation presdent Dr Hideo Noda said in Japan, several …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) … Originally designed as a facility to process vegetable oils such as soybean oil, the $20 million upgrades will allow the facility to take in lower-cost feedstock such as waste vegetable …

by Roger Moore (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Leifmark LLC)  …If you’re Denmark, and practically surrounded by the North Sea, global warming and the anticipated rise in the ocean level tend to focus the national mind. To thrive …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The UDSA Foreign Agricultural Service recently published a Global Agricultural Information Network report outlining Spain’s ethanol industry. The report,” titled “Spain’s Bioethanol Standing Report,” notes that the country is …

by Andrew Herndon (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  Gevo Inc. (GEVO), Syntroleum Corp. and Solazyme Inc. (SZYM) may be among a “small set” of biofuel producers vying for supply contracts from the U.S. Defense Department, the world’s largest consumer of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)   …In biofuels, feedstocks come in many shapes, phases, and sizes — but only three colors – red, yellow and green. That’s what our friends in the financial world tell …

by James A. Loyola (Manila Bulletin)  …He (CIIF OMG president and chief executive officer Jesus L. Arranza) said the upward adjustment of the minimum mandated biodiesel blend is justified since the production of copra has …

(VTT Technology)  … So far, conventional diesel buses and conventional diesel fuel have dominated the market, with some contribution from natural gas buses. Now we are in a situation in which the technology options are increasing rapidly. …

(American Association of Swine Veterinarians)  The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization recently published a book entitled Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challenges. AASV member Dr Harold Tilstra co-authored Chapter 3; ”Impact of …

(Reuters) A small Scottish whisky maker is aiming to turn its by-products into biofuel and become the world’s first whisky distillery to fuel car and trucks in a move which could see Scotland’s 100-plus distilleries …

(Shoreham Herald)  A SUSSEX MEP is the latest to say “no” to a proposals for a biofuel power station in Shoreham.

Adur District Council is currently considering an application, to build the facility at the town’s port. …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)   A team of faculty and students from Utah State University set a land speed record this month in a student-built car run on biodiesel fuel also produced by the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  What will bigger targets mean for producers, livestock, obligated refiners, and the diesel-using public?
In Washington, the EPA issued its final rule for 2013 establishing 1.28 billion gallons as next year’s …

by Mackinnon Lawrence (Biofuels Digest/Pike Research)  …The Toilet Bike, though, brings to light questions around the broader potential for biogas as a renewable transportation fuel, an application that has been gaining increased attention in recent years. …

(PR NewsWire)  E2 Report: Biofuel industry well positioned to meet demand under California standard
Despite a challenging year, the advanced biofuels industry continues to grow, according to a new report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). Biofuel production capacity has …

by Matthew Aylott (National Non-Food Crops Centre)   NNFCC gives its top ten of Britain’s most progressive biofuel and biochemical companies.
TMO Renewables …
Green Biologics …
British Airways …
Ensus …
BP …
Johnson Matthey …
Croda …
INEOS Bio …
Harvest Energy …
Greenergy … …

by Robert Rapier (Biofuels Digest/Consumer Energy Report)  Distillates are petroleum products that includes diesel, jet fuel, and fuel oil. Renewable distillates may be categorized as substitutes or drop-in replacements. The most common distillate substitute is …

(Business Wire/AlphaJet)  …Having successfully demonstrated its cost-effective catalytic process for making jet fuel, diesel and high-octane gasoline from renewable plant oils or animal fats, AliphaJet is beginning its commercial scale-up program.
…The company has launched a …

(Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  Cleaner, more sustainable, more climate-friendly, more affordable advanced biofuels are closer to reality than many outside the industry seem to think. At least three new, advanced biofuel biorefineries are being …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In our investigations in Iowa this week, we noted 6 trends worth carefully watching, which take us from opportunities with existing feedstocks to exotic newcomers like algae.
Our thesis now is …

by Phoebe Ho (MetroNews)  With barely any background in chemistry, a University of Windsor nursing grad and her business partner spent the last two months experimenting with animal fat and vegetable oil in hopes of creating …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  With the US drought, food vs fuel has returned as an issue.  What alternatives are scientists, entrepreneurs developing to take us beyond the old debate?
…1. Feedstock diversification.  In biofuels, it …

(Waste Management World)  The agricultural industry in British Columbia, Canada is set to benefit from an investment in two waste to energy and biofuel projects under the Canada-B.C. Agri-Innovation Program.
According to the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, an …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …As is sometimes overlooked, the advanced biofuels pool in the US Renewable Fuel Standard is not only a qualifying pool for cellulosic biofuels – which have struggled to come to …

by Ashley Player (Biodiesel Magazine/Frazier, Barnes & Associates)  …One potential gray area is the treatment of off-spec biodiesel—many facilities simply sell the material without RINs to be reprocessed by other biodiesel plants. A question that …

(University of York) Scientists at the University of York are leading a major new EU-backed network that is exploring ways of using waste as an alternative carbon source, employing green and sustainable chemical technologies.
York’s Green …

The race to create a better, less controversial biofuel has spawned plenty of research into a variety of potential new sources – including switchgrass, cornstalks and algae.
One goal behind the next generation of ethanol fuel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …But the 80/20 rule generally applies. 85 percent of the projects we expect to see by 2017 will be developed by 20 percent of the companies tracked in the Advanced …

by Michael Gubisch (FlightGlobal/Flight International)  …Between 15 July and 27 December 2011, Lufthansa deployed a newly delivered Airbus A321 (registration D-AIDG) on the route between Hamburg and Frankfurt, with one of the two International Aero …

(Innoget.com) IUCT has developed a technology to produce different biofuels in biodiesel plants and oleochemical production facilities. Our technology is very flexible because the starting raw materials may be glycerol, vegetable oils, animal fats or …

by Anne Ju (Cornell Chronicle)  At Cornell, researchers are turning beer into biofuel.
It’s not the beer that’s good to drink — but fermentation broth, which is chemically identical to the imbibing beer, from which the …

(Expansion.com) The first biodiesel plant that uses Cuban bush inedible oilseed “Jatropha curcas”, popularly known in the island as “physic nut” began to produce today, according to local media reported.
The facility, located in the eastern …

by Peter Sur (Hawaii Tribune-Herald)  …Big Island Biodiesel, located near Keaau, opened its doors for investors to tour the $12 million plant that in a few months will begin turning fuel crops and used cooking …

(ABC2News)   …Princess Anne and Somerset County officials told The Daily Times of Salisbury (http://bit.ly/MEf0Ls ) that they are waiting for state environmental regulators to identify the substance found near a biodiesel plant in the …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Researchers in Southeast Asia have identified an approach to producing ethanol using an abundant waste feedstock that could potentially add a significant source of biofuel production from oil palm …

by Max Frankel (ThinkProgress)   …But in the world of science, researchers around the world are working on some very innovative ways to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from more sustainable feedstocks.
Here’s a look …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Most of the stories we write at the Digest on the subject of biofuels feedstocks fall into the well-established realms of normal. But every once in  a while, a feedstock …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Regardless of its naming deficiencies, waste has been hot and getting hotter as a bioenergy feedstock because it solves three of the most pressing problems blocking capacity expansion.
1. The feedstocks …

by Matt Daily (Reuters/Huffington Post)  After a decade of promise, advanced biofuels makers are entering a crucial make-or-break period with the first of a new generation of production facilities about to come on line.
The new …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …It doesn’t take a casual observer very long to see the China’s activity in industrial biotechnology accelerating, as more and more technologies develop there, or transfer there via JVs or …